Court hears campaigners’ appeals

A HONG Kong court began hearing appeals yesterday from 12 democracy campaigners who were jailed for subversion last year during the city’s largest national security trial.

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They were among 45 opposition figures, including some of Hong Kong's best-known democracy activists, who were sentenced in November over a 2020 informal primary election that authorities deemed a subversive plot.

Critics including the US, Britain and the EU said the case showed how a Beijing-imposed national security law has eroded freedoms and quashed peaceful opposition in Hong Kong.

Ex-lawmakers “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, Lam Cheuk-ting, Helena Wong and Raymond Chan are among those contesting their convictions and sentences in hearings that are scheduled to last 10 days.